ABSTRACT
The study included 20 patients with post- traumatic paraplegia or paraparesis due to acute spinal cord injury with onset 72 hours to 2 weeks after trauma. Ten normal subjects of both sexes served as control. Aim of this work is to assess the efficacy and accuracy of tibial SEP as a prognostic ambulatory tool compared to clinical and radiological tools in acute paraplegic spinal cord injured individuals in order to efficiently plan the rehabilitation program. Patients underwent full medical history, thorough clinical and neurological examination according to the standards of ASIA [American Spinal Injury Association], radiological examination by X-ray, CT and/or MRI. SEP for both tibial nerves. All patients received complete rehabilitation program according to the stage of SCI. Neurological status and tibial SEP were assessed again after 12 months. Barthel score was used to grade functional outcome with assessment of ambulation status. The study revealed that 65% of patients were able to ambulate in the community at 1 year while 35% were non-ambulant at all. The initial Lower Extremity Motor Score [LEMS], pin prick sensory limb scores and tibial SEP were highly significantly correlated to the degree of ambulatory capacity finally achieved, while there was non-significant relation between the initial sense of position or CT grade with final ambulatory outcome